Daily Archives: August 19, 2019

Conservation groups sued the Trump administration today for ignoring a legal petition to protect critically endangered Southern Resident killer whales in the heart of their Salish Sea habitat. Today’s lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court in Washington by the Center for Biological Diversity and Orca Relief Citizens’ Alliance (ORCA), follows news that three more of these starving orcas are presumed dead, dropping their population to just 73. >click to read< 18:12

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The federal government says it has settled its civil case against a fishing magnate known as The Codfather, saying he will never be allowed to return to U.S. fisheries. Carlos Rafael, based out of New Bedford, Massachusetts, was sentenced to prison for shirking fishing quotas and smuggling profits overseas. >click to read< 13:59

Carlos Rafael to be banned from fishing, pay $3 million – The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said it settled with Rafael and his fishing captains on Monday.,,, Under the terms of the settlement, Rafael is required to: >click to read<

The Carlos stories leading to this moment in New England Commercial Fishing History – >click here<

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This letter is a response to Ryan Cleary’s letter “Single union can’t represent all sides of fishery” >click here<. Uniting workers in the fishing industry through a single union has delivered significant benefits to both fish harvesters and plant workers in the 50-year history of FFAW-Unifor and its predecessor unions. The only groups who do not support strong unions are the fishing companies we negotiate with, and Ryan Cleary and his group FISH-NL. by Keith Sullivan >click to read< 13:01

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The Federation of Independent Sea Harvesters of Newfoundland and Labrador (FISH-NL) supports calls for an independent authority to oversee the environment in the province’s offshore oil and gas industry. “There is growing evidence that the industry regulator, the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board, is unable to protect the environment,” says Ryan Cleary, President of FISH-NL. “Between seismic blasting and offshore spills, it’s full-speed ahead for the petroleum industry — the commercial fishery and marine environment be damned.” >click to read< 11:22

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Researchers say conservationists and the fishing industry must work together to save the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale. Only about 400 of these whales are left living in the wild, and scientists say human activity is to blame. Proposed federal regulations,,, But these measures drastically reduce the number of lines lobstermen are allowed to have in the water. That’s why Massachusetts lobstermen are eager to try new technology that would enable them to set their traps without a vertical line. Patrick Ramage is director of marine conservation for the International Fund for Animal Welfare.,,, >click to read<10:33

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Unusually warm temperatures across Alaska this summer has led to die-offs of unspawned chum, sockeye and pink salmon, with the warm waters acting as a “thermal block,” basically a wall of heat salmon don’t swim past, delaying upriver migration.,,, “Cook Inletkeeper has been tracking stream temperatures in non-glacial systems across the Cook Inlet watershed since 2002. But this is a first – we’ve never seen stream temperatures above 76 degrees Fahrenheit,” wrote Mauger. “Physiologically, the fish can’t get oxygen moving through their bellies,”,,, >click to read< 09:46

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In the past ten years, journalism has seen a sudden shift and the overwhelming urge to promote one ideology over another. The majority of news outlets have decided to back commercial wind turbines on land and sea as their contribution to the environment. When you read stories about the Vineyard ocean wind project you have to look for what was left out of the story not what is in the story.,,, Pictures in the print media over the past month show a small fishing boat near an ocean wind turbine saying that less than a mile apart leaves the fishing industry plenty of room to continue their industry. What the media is leaving out is two ESPs, Electric Service Platforms,,, cables exposed,,, >click to read< 08:59

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Building a commercial prawn trawler at the age of 90 as the fishing industry undergoes change in New South Wales would be viewed as the ultimate in optimism. Ross Miller has fished for decades around Coffs Harbour on the mid-north coast after starting in Sydney in his early teens in a career which has included building and running ferries as well as fishing boats. He has lost count of how many boats he has built, although the latest venture is the ninth to bear the name Kirra. >click to read< 08:22

NILS STOLPE: The New England groundfish debacle (Part IV): Is cutting back harvest really the answer?

While it’s a fact that’s hardly ever acknowledged, the assumption in fisheries management is that if the population of a stock of fish isn’t at some arbitrary level, it’s because of too much fishing. Hence the term “overfished.” Hence the mandated knee jerk reaction of the fisheries managers to not enough fish; cut back on fishing. What of other factors? They don’t count. It’s all about fishing, because fishing is all that the managers can control; it’s their Maslow’s Hammer. When it comes to the oceans it seems as if it’s about all that the industry connected mega-foundations that support the anti-fishing ENGOs with hundreds of millions of dollars a year in “donations” are interested in controlling. Read the article here